Tor browser it is the ideal solution for users who care about theirs privacy. The software allows you to obtain a Incognito browsing safer than ever. Especially if you use your own servizi onion.
Tor is used by everyone who wants to keep the activities on the web away from prying eyes. But also by those who are interested in reach blocked pages in specific geographic regions, or pages belonging to the dark web.
Downloading Tor takes just a few clicks and the browser is available on the main operating systems. The same goes for i servizi onion. Just use the right address to be sure of anonymous and protected browsing.
The onion addresses they are very long strings of alphanumeric characters. Tor confirms the validity of the entered address by displaying a onion (“onion” in English) within its screen.
Some of the most visited sites in the world they are equipped with a official .onion address within Tor. However, be careful to find lists of reliable sites. The risk is to run into scams more or less annoying and to fall into real hacker attacks.
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1. What Tor is and how it works
Before I start explaining how the dark web works e how to browse with .onion and Tor we need to start from some basic concepts. Tor it’s a browser and a computer network designed for anonymous browsing and the protection of privacy.
It is a network even funded by the US government, designed to help users who navigate in critical conditions. Think in this sense of all those countries in which theInternet access he comes monitored or even censored.
Tor is often considered a onion routeror a onion router. This is because his encrypted virtual circuit opera in layers. In this sense, the layers of Tor can in some way be associated with those of onions.
Connecting to Tor means securing a Incognito browsing practically unassailable. This means that the Internet activities of Tor they cannot be spied on and that their privacy is fundamentally safe.
But Tor also allows you to access content that is difficult or impossible to reach in another way: starting from pages ei blocked sites within individual countries. Until we get to the aforementioned darkweb.
The user enters theURL you intend to visit and the request is bounced between several servers spread all over the world, run by volunteers. Recent estimates speak of around 8,000 nodes (relay) and approximately 3,000 bridges (bridge).
Superati i server the request reaches an exit node, which in turn contacts the site or page to which the request was made. At this point Tor collects response data and sends them to the user.
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2. What are .onion addresses for?
In the previous paragraph it was explained that with theonion router Tor browsing is really incognito and that User privacy is safe. This, however, applies above all to navigation that uses the so-called “onion services”.
Indeed the last mile of web traffic it can even be tracked on Tor. For example, organizations that analyze or manage exit nodes they could access sensitive information about the user’s browsing. Especially in the case where the traffic not is encrypted.
It is possible to avoid this risk use onion addresses: strings composed of ben 56 alphanumeric characterswhich end with “.onion”. The onion service refers to a server accessible exclusively via Tor.
This assumption causes that no one can monitor your browsing of the user. Not even looking at the exit nodes. At the same time, using onion addresses allows those who host sites or web pages to hide their servers using the Tor network.
To give a concrete example: Facebook is equipped with a official address within the onion services of Tor. The address can be reached by typing in Tor browser: “facebookwkhpilnemxj7asaniu7vnjjbiltxjqhye3mhbshg7kx5tfyd.onion”.
This address allows you to access Facebook via Tor. This means that the user’s connection never leaves the Tor network. And that consequently his activity of navigation they cannot be monitored.
Login to Facebook via Tor it also allows you to use the services of the popular social network all Countries that block its use: for example North Korea, Turkmenistan and Iran.
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3. How to access .onion sites with Tor browser
The procedure to follow to use Tor e view .onion pages and sites it’s very simple. The first thing to do is scaricare Tor browser from its official website: the software is available for operating systems Windows, macOS e Linux.
Tor browser is also available for mobile operating system Android. To date an official app for iOS and iPadOS is missing. But it is still possible to use programs developed by third parties.
Once you’ve started the Tor browser, all that’s left to do is type the alphanumeric character string inside the address bar. To locate the .onion addresses of popular sites and pages on Tor is enough perform a web search.
That said, it’s always a good idea to take .onion lists and mailing lists with a grain of salt precautions. In fact, the risk is that of falling into one of many scams that populate the dark web.
Likewise it would be good to avoid access .onion sites or pages via proxy. I proxy they are servers that play the role of intermediary. In this case the proxy connects to Tor on behalf of the user and then forwards its traffic within the more “classic” Internet.
In other words using a proxy on Tor means give up privacy and the incognito browsing you desire. The website still maintains a dimension of anonymity, but the user still runs the risk of being monitored in its activities on the web.
To know more: Computer security: guide to safe browsing on the web
